Apple denied ban on Samsung smartphones

A US court has denied Apple's request for a sales ban on a number of Samsung smartphones in the United States.

US District Judge Lucy Koh ruled against Apple's request for a permanent injunction against 26 Samsung products that the tech giant said infringed their patents, saying that there was not enough evidence these infringements hurt Apple's US sales.

Speaking in the San Jose court Koh said:

"The phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple's patents."

The South Korean company had been ordered to pay $1.05bn in damages in a US court ruling earlier this year, after it was found to have copied several key features of the iPhone and iPad.

Since then Apple has struggled in its legal battles with Samsung, losing an appeal in the UK that Samsung had not infringed its design patents, and being asked last month to disclose the details to Samsung of its 10-year license agreement with Taiwanese phone-maker HTC.